"An Old Bailey user wiki has been launched, allowing users to contribute information on people mentioned in the Proceedings, historical background, related source materials, and corrections. The wiki also includes the bibliography and schools pages."

Now I have another task - I will add information about my ancestors who were tried and sentenced at The Old Bailey to the wiki.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

BBC Book List - how many have you read?

Noticed this on Carole's Canvas and, as a reader, just had to take part.
Apparently the BBC reckons most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.
How many did you read, and which ones?
Instructions:

Friday, February 20, 2009

When you're out in the field and need to connect to the internet there are not many spots in Australia where one can get free WiFi internet access.

I have just noticed that Maccas (aka McDonalds) are rolling out free WiFi at a rate of 8 stores a day. So far 568 McDonald’s restaurants offer free wi-fi with estimated completion date of mid March. The final number of stores will be 710, making McDonald’s the largest provider of Free WiFi Internet Access in Australia.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

On its website, Bega Council has a wonderful page called My Place where members of the community are invited to share their memories. "We would love to include your memories of a house, street, farm, locality, village, town, park, beach or monument within the Bega Valley Shire on my place...

Your memories may be from long ago or from a few months ago. There is no time limit."

Amongst the stories published are a number from notable Australian Children's Author "Di Bates".

Genealogists with links to the Bega area, here is a place where you can record stories of your families.

Friday, February 13, 2009

"The Index to Register of Immigrants 1864-1878 is now available on the Queensland State Archives website. This index was compiled from Series ID 7454 , a register of immigrants created by the Assistant Immigration Agent, Toowoomba. This register contains details of applications for passage certificates for immigration, registered in Toowoomba. The date, name and age of immigrant, trade, where living (country of origin), amount paid, name of depositor and relevant remarks as to where living in the district are included in the details."

Thursday, February 12, 2009

I have had a subscription with http://ancestry.co.uk for a number of years and am interested in comparing the resources available in these products and seeing what is available in the Australian edition.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Our national broadcaster, the ABC, has a wealth of current and archived news on the devastating fires that have ravaged Victoria over the past few days. The sobering news on this site lacks the sensationalist bias of some other media organistions.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

My grandfather, Frank Duncan, fought with the allied forces in World War 1. He was a long way from his home in Cobar when he had this photograph taken in his distinctive Australian slouch hat at The American Galleries in Lime Street, Liverpool, England.

Friday, February 6, 2009

This post is prepared for Genea Bloggers Weekly Genealogy Prompt Week #5: Talk about your genealogy adventures while on vacation. Doesn’t everyone plan a little genealogy visit during vacation? Take your readers along for the ride.From my diary on 9th July 2004: "Big find of the afternoon was the death of Robert's 5xgrandmother Janet Sibbald."

We had paid a visit to East Lothian Local History Centre in the town of Haddington, Scotland "where the staff, who work in the most incredibly basic conditions, were hugely helpful." It was here that we found an obituary for the death of Janet Gowans nee Sibbald who died on 24 February 1814. We were thrilled to find that she was interred in a local church, St. Mary's, Haddington so we set off in search of the grave. The staff at the Local History Centre were very professional in their approach and tuned in to our needs; they went out of their way to make our visit the success that it was.

"We cannot find the Gowans grave, but meet a helpful old Scot, Ewan, who is indexing the historic cemetery. He gives us his 'phone number and promises to look in his records at home to see if he has any info for us." After returning from dinner to our hotel in Edinburgh that evening we gave Ewan a call. "We are given the news that we were very close to Janet's grave this afternoon and that there are five other persons in the grave including Robert's 5xgrandfather John Gowans." The next morning we returned to St. Mary's and took a number of photos of the grave and graveyard.

Ewan's act of kindness created one of the highlight's of our family history trip to Scotland. It is pleasing to see that the results of Ewan's work are published on the church website.

The information on the Gowans headstone gave us many leads for further research. We now need another trip to Scotland to follow them up!